2025 Philippine general election

The 2025 Philippine general election was held on May 12, 2025. During this midterm election, where the winners take office mid-way through the term of President Bongbong Marcos, all 317 seats in the House of Representatives and 12 of the 24 seats in the Senate were contested to form the 20th Congress of the Philippines. Local elections were also held for the executive and legislative branches in every province, city, and municipality in the country. The first regular election to the Bangsamoro Parliament was supposed to be held within the general election after it was postponed in 2022 but was held on October 13, 2025.

This was the first general election to be held following the 2023 Philippine barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. This election was also the first automated election to be overseen by the South Korean firm Miru Systems after the Commission of Elections (COMELEC) disqualified Smartmatic from participating in future elections.

Lakas–CMD remained the most dominant party inside the House of Representatives, as 104 of its congressional candidates in the 2025 midterm elections had secured seats for the 20th Congress, adding they would continue to support the presidential administration of Marcos. Only six of the twelve elected senators are from the Marcos alliance; of those six, one (Camille Villar) is only partly in his camp, as she also accepted endorsement from Sara Duterte. Four of the elected senators are in the Duterte camp, including the president's sister Imee Marcos. Two were in the top three vote-winners, ahead of any Marcos candidate. The elections are likely to have an effect on the impeachment of Sara Duterte.

This general election saw a turnout of 82.2%, the highest for a midterm election, with 57,350,968 ballots being cast from 69,673,653 registered voters.

Background

Voter registration

Philippine citizens must be at least 18 years old by noontime of election day in order to vote. In addition, Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) must have a valid Philippine passport. COMELEC implemented the Register Anywhere Program in July 2022, converting shopping malls, certain churches, and plazas as offices for the program. OFWs are supposed to register for the elections by going to their nearest Philippine embassy.

In May 2023, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) recorded a total of 68 million registered voters. The commission estimated an increase of three million voters for the 2025 elections, creating a total of 71 million voters registered to vote in the election.

Implementation of Miru Systems

Disqualification of Smartmatic

On November 29, 2023, the COMELEC disqualified Smartmatic from all procurement processes conducted by the agency amid the company's involvement with the alleged bribery schemes concerning COMELEC Chairman Andres Bautista, citing an "imminent threat to the strength and integrity" of the country's electoral process.

Public bidding for the automated voting system

On December 14, COMELEC conducted its first public bidding for a contract for the full automation system with the transparency audit count (FASTrAC) project amounting to a maximum of ₱18.827 billion. The South Korean firm Miru Systems was the sole bidder for the contract in the first round of bidding; its bid for the contract was rejected due to issues with its associated documents.

Later, on December 25, 2023, election watchdog Democracy Watch Philippines urged COMELEC to review Miru Systems' bid for the FASTrAC, expressing concern over electoral failures in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq whose elections Miru Systems oversaw. The company denied such failures, asserting that the two countries had "continued to show trust" in the company.

The second round of bidding was conducted on January 8, 2024, in which six companies expressed interest in placing a bid. Of the six companies, only Miru Systems submitted a bid for the contract. In its second bid, the company was deemed eligible in its bid after fully complying with the required documents. COMELEC began its post-qualification evaluation of Miru Systems on January 23.

COMELEC unanimously awarded the contract for the lease of automated vote counting machines (VCMs) to Miru Systems on February 21. The contract, amounting to ₱17.9 billion, was finalized on March 11.

Reactions and aftermath

After the contract was signed, Cagayan de Oro 2nd district House representative Rufus Rodriguez criticized COMELEC for not obtaining the report lodged by Miru Systems' critics, deeming it a "big negligence". In her privilege speech, Senator Risa Hontiveros cast doubt in the lack of bidders for the FASTrAC contract and raised the possibility of "bid suppression" in the bidding process. One of Miru Systems' local partners, St. Timothy Construction Corporation, was subpoenaed by the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms due to its ties to companies blacklisted by the Department of Public Works and Highways and a "sudden infusion of money" into the company in 2022.

On April 17, the Supreme Court of the Philippines ruled that the COMELEC committed a "grave abuse of discretion" in their disqualification of Smartmatic in bidding for the VCM contracts for the midterm election, but stated that its ruling does not nullify the bidding process that awarded Miru Systems the VCM contract, leaving the company as the provider of the VCMs for the election. In response, COMELEC filed a motion of reconsideration to the court.

More than one hundred thousand VCMs will be replaced in preparation for the election. Rizal 2nd district House representative Dino Tanjuatco called for the VCMs to be reused instead to allocate more funds to address the "high costs of goods". Smartmatic called for COMELEC to "utilize the warranty" of 93,977 precinct-based optical mark reader (OMR) machines and their accompanying election management system (EMS) that remain under the ownership of the commission.

On July 9, SAGIP House representative Rodante Marcoleta alleged that Miru Systems bribed COMELEC to win its contract for the FASTrAC, attributing his claims to offshore bank accounts worth ₱120 million in deposits. Garcia denied the allegations as "baseless", asserting that "he has no foreign bank account". Consequently, Garcia requested the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to probe the individuals responsible for Marcoleta's allegations.

On July 16, the Supreme Court en banc directed former Caloocan House representative Edgar Erice to file comment on the confidentiality and protective gag order motion filed by Miru Systems on the 2025 poll case. Earlier, Erice filed a certiorari case against the ₱18-billion contract awarded by the COMELEC to Miru Systems. Erice also filed a motion with the court to cite COMELEC Chairman George Garcia in contempt of court for violation of the sub judice rule alleging Garcia's prohibited remarks on the pending case.

In November 2024, COMELEC announced that Miru Systems had fully delivered all of the ordered 110,620 automated counting machines (ACMs), one month ahead of schedule.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) noted that the Armed Forces of the Philippines played a critical role in securing polling stations and supporting the peaceful conduct of the 2025 midterm elections, ensuring voter safety and upholding democratic processes.

Other contracts awarded

On April 8, the ₱1.4 billion contract to provide secure electronic transmission services (SETS) was awarded to a joint venture of iOne Resources Incorporated and Ardent Networks. On June 25, a joint venture of Sequent Tech and SMS Global Technologies won the contract to deliver an online voting tool for overseas voting.

Proposed amendments to the 1987 Constitution

On February 8, 2024, Constitution Day, President Bongbong Marcos affirmed his support for the efforts to amend the 1987 Constitution for "economic matters alone", pertaining to the Resolution of Both Houses No. 6 and 7, which largely aims to insert the phrase "unless otherwise provided by law" in select provisions to allow Congress to lift or relax present economic restrictions in the Constitution.

Marcos called for a constitutional plebiscite to be held in conjunction with the 2025 Philippine general election, noting the high costs of holding a separate vote. Garcia initially refused the notion of holding the plebiscite within the general election, citing a Supreme Court ruling prohibits the simultaneous conduct of a regular election and a constitutional plebiscite. However, Garcia would later change his stance and support conducting the two votes at once, announcing plans to use new VCMs and extend voting hours in anticipation of a possible plebiscite.